A conventional dashboard assembly typically includes an integral control panel located under the windshield of a vehicle. The dashboard assembly may contain instrumentation and controls associated with the operation, functionality, and/or monitoring of the vehicle. For example, a dashboard includes multiple gauges (such as speedometers, tachometers, odometers, and/or fuel gauges), indicators (such as gear shift position, seat belt warning lights, and/or engine malfunction lights), and other instruments. A dashboard may also include heating or ventilation controls, vents, lighting controls, audio equipment, navigation systems, storage compartments (e.g., glove compartments), consoles, and other features.
Generally, these instruments, indicators and other components are located in various fixed positions on a single dashboard panel. For example, the gauges and indicators may be at a driver's side of the dashboard, the audio equipment may be centrally located, and the storage compartment may be at a passenger's side of the dashboard.
Tactical vehicles, such as vehicles that operate military missions, generally include additional components within their dashboards. The components may be mission specific components, providing drivers and passengers with information and functionalities necessary for the mission. These components may include C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence) equipment, display components, human machine interface equipment, storage equipment, auxiliary power equipment, communications equipment, weapon control, navigation, situational awareness information, and other controls and/or information systems.
These types of vehicles are often used for different mission variants, such as command missions, supply missions, control missions, reconnaissance mission, intelligence gathering missions and medivac missions. Once the vehicles are built and configured in a factory, it can be difficult to reconfigure them to satisfy the needs of a certain mission variant. A tactical vehicle may often be called upon to perform different variants within a short period of time. However, conventional vehicles cannot be easily modified, and unnecessary equipment may clutter or hinder efficient operation in a vehicle during a mission. Also, repairing or servicing equipment in the dashboard can be difficult due to the relative rigid structure of single dashboard panels. In addition, upgrading equipment can also be challenging, because the new equipment may require adjustments to the dashboard configuration, such as the placement and/or location of HVAC routing, equipment cutouts, wiring, and so on. These and other drawbacks exist with respect to traditional, single panel, dashboards in vehicles.